If you’ve been reading our blog posts over the past month, you’ve noticed that we’ve learned quite a bit from our latest research report, “The State of Digital Media.” Well, we’re not done. Not even close.
Because this report included insights from more than 4 million pieces of content and editors at leading online publications, you can imagine that we have a lot to share — so much, in fact, that I decided to switch it up and use our findings to discuss three major things you should definitely not do with your content.
So grab a pen and paper, and start jotting these down. (Your content strategy will thank you for it.)
1. Focus all of your efforts on owned media alone.
Ninety-six percent of editors we surveyed said they planned to publish the same amount or more of content this year. They want your content, and their audiences want your content. Give it to them.
Find out which publications your audience is reading, and work with those editors to get your content published there. If you focus your efforts only on creating content for your own company blog or website, then you limit the reach and impact of your efforts.
Don’t get me wrong. Owned media is still very important, and it works well with your earned and paid efforts. (How else would you keep your audience engaged when they’re on your website if you didn’t have high-quality owned media?) But you have to get them to your site first, and that’s where earned media and contributed comes in.
2. Use content to shamelessly promote your company.
I thought most of us marketers had finally gotten to a place where we understood this best practice, but our findings told another story: One of the most common issues editors have with contributed content is that it’s just too promotional.
If you don’t frequently work with publication editors, I can kind of see how it might be difficult to know exactly what they want and what they define as “too promotional” — but there are a couple of red flags that should tip you off. Forced mentions of your company and too many links to your site are two major ones.
Promotion will get you nowhere in content marketing, and these online publication editors need you to know that. (Audiences everywhere need you to know that.)
3. Sit back and relax once your content is live.
Unfortunately, too many content creators make this mistake: They think their work is done once their content is published. If you are serious about using your content to achieve your goals and to build relationships with your audience, then you can’t just sit on it once it’s live.
As a content creator, you must take an active role in sharing your own content. Give it an extra boost by encouraging your team to share the content, because the more people share, the more people will see it. Plus, 66 percent of publication editors said they use the number of social shares to measure the success of contributed content. Sharing is caring, folks.
Now, those are just three takeaways from this report to apply to your content. (I mean, what kind of marketer would I be if I gave away the whole report in one blog post? Answer: not a good one.) For complete findings, check out the entire report to find out whether there are other ways you may be sabotaging your content.
For more insights from our industry research, download “The State of Digital Media” below.
.jpg)
